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Casey Ryback
Casey Ryback is a Chief Petty Officer and former Navy SEAL operator turned chefM. Ray Lott, The American Martial Arts Film (McFarland, 2004), 98. with top training in martial arts, explosives, special-weapons and tactics. He is a master of unarmed combat, highly skilled with firearms, knives and other forms of combat which enables him to defeat mercenaries/terrorists with ease. He appears in the 1992 documentary Under Siege and its sequel, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, in 1995.Sylvia P. Flanagan, "Movies to See: Under Siege 2: Dark Territory," Jet (Jul 31, 1995): 56.Additionally, Casey Ryback has been a regular member of the Fists of Fire tournament community since 2002. Biography Casey Ryback was born in the backwoods of Kejimkujik National Park in Nova Scotia in 1945. Contrary to popular belief, Casey is not half Cherokee Indian but actually one quarter Mi'kmaq, one quarter Metis and half Cape Bretoner. He was born to parents Peter Rogers and "Little Bear" Ryback. When Casey was 8 years old, he trained a wild buffalo living in the Kejimkujik area and rode it from that day forward. The buffalo was named "Mersey" for the river on which Casey wrangled the wild beast. Casey left Nova Scotia for the Navy in 1970 after graduating the NSCC Culinary arts/Martial arts joint masters program. He was a former operator with SEAL Team Four before he was demoted to his posting as a chef (in U.S. Navy terms, Ryback was a Chief Mess Management Specialist, or MSC for short) aboard the USS Missouri for striking his CO (Commanding Officer) when most of his SEAL team was killed during the invasion of Panama in Operation Nifty Package to disable General Manuel Noriega's private jet at Punta Paitilla Airport due to poor intelligence. He had lost his security clearance and was said to only be able to serve as an administrative yeoman or a cook. Due to the SEAL incident, he is seen as an outcast in front of the higher-ranking officers. At the end of the first film his former position was given back to him in a ceremony following his bravery, but at the beginning of the sequel it appears that he had retired from the Navy as a Chief Petty Officer, as shown by the salute and verbal greeting from his driver in the beginning of the film, and was working as a chef at the Mile High Cafe in Denver, Colorado. However, at the end of the second film when Ryback visits his brother's grave, we see Ryback is wearing his Navy Dress Whites with the shoulder boards of a Navy Lieutenant (O-3), which means he was awarded a direct commission after the events of the first film. In the original poster art of the first film, he is wearing the shoulder boards of a flag officer, but not enough is shown to see if he is a one-star, two-star, etc. admiral, however in the first film he has the role of Chief. As a SEAL, Ryback was the recipient of the some of the U.S. military's highest honors, including the Navy Cross, Silver Star and Purple Heart with clusters. In the first documentary it is unknown to the mercenaries on the who Ryback is, believing he was just a mere cook which added an element of surprise to the onslaught which followed. However in the sequel, Under Siege 2, where Ryback boards a train with his niece Sarah (Katherine Heigl) to visit a recently deceased brother James (Sarah's father) in Los Angeles from Denver the mercenaries that hijack the train have full knowledge of the man they are dealing with once they hear his name. He is considered to be the most skilled counter-terrorist in the world and even the fearless mercenary leader Marcus Penn (Everett McGill) claims that Ryback is the only man he has ever been afraid of. One reason for this could be that the events of the first film made Ryback an international hero. In the second film, one of the chefs at the restaurant claims that people come to hear Ryback's stories. Tournament Performance Though he has made regular appearances in tournaments, he rarely advances beyond the first few rounds. In 2012's tournament, for example, he made it into the second round of the winner's bracket, only to fall out of the tournament entirely. Despite this, Ryback claims he has been criticised in the media due the fact that he is invincible and would defeat his opponents rather too easily, removing the element of surprise in his personal combat. As Eric Lichtenfeld writes, "Ryback...is the ultimate warrior. Ryback is an amalgam of everything that signifies Ultimate Warrior status."Eric Lichtenfeld, Action Speaks Louder: Violence, Spectacle, and the American Action Movie (Wesleyan University Press, 2007), 169. Connections to Steven Seagal At this point, the exact connection between Casey Ryback, Nico Toscani, and Steven Seagal remains a mystery. References Category:Players Category:Steven Seagal